City Food Lecture 2018

Tesco’s Chief Executive Dave Lewis delivered the lecture entitled “supplier partnerships and the future of food”. Following the lecture Mr Lewis joined a panel debate chaired by Fresh Produce Journal Managing Director Chris White. The panel consisted of Julia Glotz, Managing Editor of The Grocer magazine, Sir Peter Kendall, AHDB chairman and Professor David Hughes, a food marketing expert.

Two reoccurring themes of the lecture were sustainability and food waste. Mr Lewis spoke of a new sustainability campaign he is talking to government about which would see the introduction of an initiative to use Tesco car parks as recycling sites for packaging which can then be reused in stores. He said this would create “a closed loop, a circular economy in terms of packaging” and also his desire to “work with suppliers to bring more of that recycled packaging back into our business”.

During the panel session Mr Lewis said he understood the anger surrounding the marketing of non-existent farms as part of Tesco’s farm brands. He said that this approach to food branding was not new and was also used by their competitors. Mr Lewis also spoke of previous supplier relationships admitting they were at times very confrontational. However he said “over the last three and a half years we set about changing and we have made commitments to long term partnerships with a number of key suppliers”.

Members of the NFU’s Poultry Industry Programme were able to attend this year's lecture; their invitation was kindly sponsored by a member of the Worshipful Company of Poulters. One of the past PIP participants, Chris Rumming (pictured below), a seasonal turkey producer from the South West was one of the attendees.

Chris said: “The generous invitation to attend the City Food Lecture was too good an opportunity to miss!

Dave Lewis spoke on how Tesco are focusing on the health of their customers as well as the sustainability of its own supply chains and its environmental responsibilities. He was keen to emphasise how Tesco were forming longer term relationships with suppliers rather than playing one farmer off against another as they were guilty of in the past. Better relationships with growers was reducing uncertainty for the farmer although it was pointed out by panellist Peter Kendall that they were following the example set by Aldi and Co-op.

Mr Lewis spoke with most passion on the subject of waste, stating that having seen people in poverty while working all over the world has led him to now try and cut it in all stages from the farmers’ field to customers’ fridge.

Tesco have made large inroads into reducing waste and Mr Lewis now has his sights on shaking up food packaging. His goal is a closed loop of materials where packaging is returned to store to be recycled into new packaging.

It was notable that a concern that repeatedly cropped up (including in HRH Princess Anne’s summary) was of the danger our increasing standards leaves us ever more vulnerable to inferior and cheaper imports. Mr Lewis finished by saying the challenges that face the food industry are big ones that require big changes”.